Message in a bottle, the second romantic novel written by US Best seller, Nicholas Sparks tries to portray the journey of love followed by grief and grief followed by love. The story is set in the mid-late 1990s, then-contemporary Wilmington, North Carolina, and has been even converted into a motion picture by the same name in 1999 produced by and starring Kevin Costner.

The plot talks about a bottle thrown at the mercy of the waves, which could have taken it anywhere but gets it to the doorstep of Theresa Osborne, a journalist who is recovering from a divorce when her husband was found cheating on her. Alone and with a boy to take care off, Theresa has given up any hope of falling in love ever again. The bottle was no ordinary bottle, but contained a message that opened with: My Dearest Catherine, I miss you my darling, as I always do, but today is particularly hard because the ocean has been singing to me, and the song is that of our life together…

The book continues to take the reader on the journey of Theresa who gets intrigued by the author of the letter, Garett, and finds the letter a reflection of his sad heart and love for his lover. She decides to trace him down and goes to North Carolina to find more about him, on a mere impulse. Hence, while for Garrett, the message is the only way he knows to express his undying love for a woman he has lost, for Theresa, the message raises questions that intrigue her.